If The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) Is Torture Porn, Then Why Does Its Official Teaser Trailer Shy Away from the Gore?

The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence) is markedly different from its predecessor in a couple of ways. For one, it doesn’t even pretend to have researched the possibility of building a “Siamese Triplet” (as the first one claimed to be) and gleefully sticks to the tagline “100% Medically Inaccurate.” But the strangest difference is that neither of the two teaser trailers features anything truly disgusting.

It’s all weirdly detached. The first one — which we still think was a fake — just showed people puking as they purportedly watched the sequel. Today’s trailer, released by IFC, finally introduces us to the movie’s twisted villain, but gives no hint as to what a “full sequence” centipede looks like.

It’s only from reading the movie’s synopsis and news reports that we actually know what it’s about: Martin (Laurence R. Harvey), the obese, bug-eyed sociopath you see above, becomes sexually obsessed with The Human Centipede after watching the movie. (That’s right — things get really meta.) Inspired by the depraved Dr. Heiter, he kidnaps ten people with the intent to join them together, mouth-to-anus, like before.

He also wraps his penis in barbed wire to rape the woman stuck at the rear of his creation. That’s just the worst, right? But there wasn’t the slightest hint in the trailer as to Martin’s actual plans for the centipede.

Tom Six and his team must think that less is more — that we’ll be more frightened if we have no way of preparing ourselves for the movie. But we (the reluctant “fans” of the first movie) are in a weird place here: Any graphic footage will remind our gag reflexes about that wild ride back in 2009, and yet we feel cheated if we don’t see anything.

For reference, here’s the official trailer for The Human Centipede, which hits just the right balance of teasing and terrifying: Though for the most part it’s Dr. Heiter talking about the surgery and training his new pet, we get a few gruesome flashes of what this unnatural creature actually looks like.

Maybe it’s too early to expect more footage — but bear in mind that the movie gets its world premiere at Austin’s Fantastic Fest on September 22. Soooo, at least it’ll be very soon that we’ll have a better idea of what horrible acts Tom Six has thought up in the last two years.

The one thing we did glean from the teaser: Martin’s got an overbearing, elderly mother who’s disappointed in her fucked-up son. Wonder what fate she gets…